Airport Extreme Network Configuration for 2 story home, from hardwired to mesh

If this is true, then the WAN "O" port on both the Living Room AirPort Extreme and Loft AirPort Extreme has failed, the ethernet cable is defective or the LAN <--> Ethernet port on the main AirPort is defective, or the Ethernet switch is defective.

Power off both the Living Room and Loft AirPorts

Restart the main Basement AirPort Extreme

Temporarily,, connect a short Ethernet cable from one of the LAN <--> ports on the main AirPort to the WAN "O" port on the Living Room AirPort Extreme. That is the port that is closest to the AC power socket on the AirPort

Power up the Living Room AirPort Extreme and let it run a minute

Hold in the reset button on the back of the AirPort Extreme for 10 seconds and release. The reset button is located just the right of the AC power socket

After a minute, the Living Room AirPort's indicator light will be slowly blinking amber

Open AirPort Utility on your Mac Applications > Utilities > AirPort Utility

Click on the Other Wi-Fi Devices button

Click on AirPort Extreme xxxxxx

The AirPort Utility screen will change to display a screen that will look similar to the example below, except that you will see your AirPorts appear and the name of wireless network appear

Type in a device name that you want to call the AirPort. You can use the same Living Room name if you want

Click Next

The next screen that appears will look similar to the example below

Check closely to make sure that the info reads that the Living Room AirPort is being set up to extend the name of your wireless network using Ethernet

If the info reads that the Living Room AirPort is being set up to wirelessly extend the name of your network, the WAN "O" port on the Living Room AirPort is defective, the Ethernet cable is defective or the Ethernet port on your Main AirPort is defective.

If the setup goes correctly, you will see a screen that looks similar to this:

Click Done and you are Done.

Set up your other Loft AirPort Extreme the same way using a short Ethernet cable from the main AirPort to the Loft AirPort.

When you have both AirPorts working correctly, move the AirPorts back to the location where you want them. If your Ethernet cabling, Ethernet switch, etc are working correctly, then so too will the AirPorts be working correctly.

If the AirPorts are not working correctly when you move them back to their normal locations,you have a problem with the Ethernet cabling or the Ethernet switch.

Please post back on your results.

Since you have all of your AirPort Extreme Base Stations (AEBS) connected by Ethernet, the basic configuration would be:

• The "main" AEBS would perform as a wireless router.
• The two other AEBS's would be configured in bridge mode and perform as Wireless Access Points (WAP).

This would be the basis for a "roaming" type network. Note that MESH networking is not supported with these base stations as that technology was not available then.

The image you provided actually shows that these two AEBS's are connected back to the main by wireless, not taking advantage of their Ethernet connections. This is the typical configuration for an extended wireless network. FYI, in the AirPort Utility, wired connections are shown with solid lines; wireless connections are shown with dotted lines.

I suggest that you start over to configure each base station appropriately. Be sure to select "Create a Wireless Network," not "Extend a Wireless Network," for these two base stations. Also, again, configure these two in Bridge Mode. In this configuration, the DHCP & DNS services, provided by the main AEBS, will pass thru to both other stations.

This setup can be done either via an "automatic" or "manual" method.

I am traveling at this time, but will be back home tomorrow afternoon. We'll go through this at that time.

The "extending" AirPorts will be set up to extend wirelessly if AirPort Utility does not detect an Ethernet connection at the extending AirPorts during the setup.

Have you checked to make sure that you have a good Ethernet connection at each extending AirPort? The best way to do this would be to temporarily disconnect the Ethernet cable that goes to each AirPort and connect a computer to the Ethernet cable. Turn off the wireless on the computer and then check to see if you can get a good Internet connection that way.

"i read somewhere that airport extremes network extending option was somehow stopped working and no way to activate it"

If you read this.....it is not correct.

So now I am back at it again in full force and need ideas please

Would not step-by-step instructions be more useful than ideas?

Things will go faster and easier if you have a Mac, so that would be the preferred device to use for the setup, but an iPhone or iPad could be used with some clunkiness. Which will you be using?

Post back when you are ready to proceed.

It would be really unusual if it turns out that the WAN "O" port on each AirPort is defective.

The only logical way that something like this could occur would be if there was a very strong thunderstorm close by with a number of close lightning strikes to your home.

Even then, all of the AirPorts failing is hard to comprehend.

Let us know about things when you can.

Thanks!